Morbidity and Mortality in Workers Occupationally Exposed to Pesticides

Utilizing
cause-of-death information and responses to questionnaires
addressed to survivors, mortalities and health impairments
in a cohort of workers occupationally exposed to pesticides
were compared to occurrences in workers not pesticide exposed,
over the period 1971-1977. Seventy-two percent of 2,620 pesticide-exposed
workers, and 75% of 1,049 "controls", recruited in 1971-73,
were accounted for either by returned questionnaire or mortality.
Disease incidence rates were studied in relation to broadly
defined occupational subclasses, and to serum concentrations
of organochlorine pesticides (OCI) measured at the time of
recruitment.

Death
by accidental trauma was unusually frequent among pesticide
applicators. Mortalities from cancer and arteriosclerosis
were not detectably different from those observed in the controls.
Among survivors, dermatitis and skin cancer were unusually
common in structural pest-control operators. Internal cancer
was no more frequent in the intensively pesticide-exposed
workers than in the controls, but if appeared to occur at
an unusually high rate in workers characterized as "possibly
pestici e-exposed".

There
were apparent associations between high serum pesticide OCI
levels measured in 1971-73 and the subsequent appearance of
hypertension, arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and
possibly diabetes. This could imply a causal role of any of
the pesticidal and other environmental stresses to which these
workers were exposed.

The
limitations of this type of followup study are discussed.

JOURNAL AND
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE ID#

JOURNAL:
Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 1980; 9(3): 349-382.

Note:
Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.

NLOM ID#:80241022.

Publication #: 80241022

This
document was extracted from the CDC-NIOSH Epidemiology of
Farm Related Injuries: Bibliography With Abstracts, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service,
Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health.

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